Benicia: 120 cartons of cigarettes stolen from discount shop

BENICIA -- Police are searching for at least two suspects who got away with thousands of dollars in cigarettes this morning in Benicia, a police lieutenant said.

Police received a report about the possibility of a burglary at the Discount Cigarette store at 866 Southampton Road at about 8:50 a.m., Lt. Frank Hartig said.

Officers arrived at the store and confirmed it had been broken into.

A manager at Discount Cigarette said 120 cartons of cigarettes, valuing at about $6,300, had been taken. The thieves took only Marlboro products, he said.

The manager said the store reopened at about 12:30 p.m. after police finished investigating.

The suspects apparently pried open the back door to the Little Thai Bistro restaurant two businesses down, kicked their way through a sheetrock wall into a Supercuts, and then kicked their way through another wall to get into Discount Cigarette, Hartig said.

Surveillance video shows at least two suspects, wearing dark clothing and covering their faces, loading up the cartons and going back through the adjoining wall into Supercuts.

The suspects then fled through the back door of Supercuts, the lieutenant said. There is no back door to Discount Cigarette, he said.

The alarm for Discount Cigarette was set off during the break-in at about 2:20 a.m., Hartig said. Arriving officers viewed the business from outside but did not detect any wrongdoing and cleared the alarm, he said.

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The suspects appear to be men from the surveillance video footage. There are no other leads on the suspects, he said.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to call Benicia police at (707) 746-4244.